Category Archives: NEWS

'Game Of Thrones' Season 5 Returns With A Flashback, Funeral And New Nemesis

'Game Of Thrones' Season 5 Returns With A Flashback, Funeral And New Nemesis
Finally, “Game of Thrones” returned on Sunday night, and the Season 5 premiere definitely lived up to all the hype. The first episode of the new season had murder, a funeral and dragons, aka everything you’d want and expect from “Game of Thrones.” Beyond that, the premiere caught us up with every major character except Arya (don’t worry, we’ll see her in Episode 2), setting up the unquestionably crazy season to come.

Spoiler alert for Season 5, Episode 1, “The Wars to Come”

Here’s what happened:

The first-ever flashback
Although showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff made a rule that they would avoid flashbacks in the series, they broke that rule this season. The episode opened with a flashback to Cersei’s childhood when she visited a fortune teller known as Maggy the Frog. The woman answered twp questions, telling young Cersei things we’ve already seen: she’ll become Queen and have three children.

Tywin’s funeral
Charles Dance wasn’t gone for good after the Season 4 finale. The actor returned for one final scene: Tywin’s funeral.

Tyrion and Varys arrive in Pentos
Varys finally let Tyrion out of the wooden crate he was locked up in while traveling across the sea. The two arrived in Illyrio’s palace in Pentos and Varys explained his mission to Tyrion: to unite him with Daenerys to assist her in taking over the Seven Kingdoms. Will the two finally meet this season? (Spoiler: according to these leaked set photos, yep!)

tyrion crate

Wait, is that Lancel Lannister?!
After Tywin’s funeral, a young man with a buzz cut approaches Cersei whom she calls cousin Lancel. Remember him? Lancel used to be awkward and skinny with long blond hair. He was the one responsible for feeding Robert Baratheon so much wine before the King was killed by a boar and who had a secret affair with Cersei. We last saw Lancel in Season 2, but now he’s back, looking much more grown up as a devout follower of the Faith of the Seven religion. After his conversation with Cersei, it’s clear Lancel will become a major nemesis to her this season.

Chaos reins in Meereen
The first death of the season comes in a completely unexpected moment. An Unsullied visits a brothel (just to cuddle!) when suddenly one of the Sons of the Harpy, a group of Meereenese noblemen rebelling against Dany, cuts his throat.

R.I.P. Mance Rayder
Mance Rayder is a man of dignity and will take a knee for no man. Jon Snow tries to talk the leader of the Free Folk into pledging allegiance to Stannis as he marches South to defeat Roose Bolton. When he refuses, Stannis has Mance burned to death until Jon shows mercy and shoots him with an arrow.

mance rayder

Sansa and Littlefinger leave the Vale
After watching Robin’s pathetic sword fighting, Sansa and Littlefinger depart from the Vale to head elsewhere. But where are they going? Wherever it is, it looks super close to where Brienne and Podrick are.

Pissed off dragons
Dany checks on two of her dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, who are chained up underground. To put it simply, they are pretty pissed and breathe a bunch of fire at her. The kids are not happy.

“Game of Thrones” airs on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO.

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www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/12/game-of-thrones-wars-to-come-recap_n_7035436.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Darren Criss Loves Drag, Meryl Outsings Gaga And Is Kristen Stewart Dating A Girl?

Darren Criss Loves Drag, Meryl Outsings Gaga And Is Kristen Stewart Dating A Girl?

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Do we really need a remake of the brilliant, un-improvable The Rocky Horror Picture Show? The folks at Fox think we do.

Darren Criss was asked by a Broadway.com reporter how he looks in drag for his upcoming stint in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. “Mama look good,” he replied, “She’s real pretty.”

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Tongues are wagging about the relationship between Kristen Stewart and her female assistant who were spotted holding hands recently. Check out some of the pics here.

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Are you still mad about Boy George? The pop icon will be the subject of an upcoming reality series.

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Be on the lookout for Seed Money, a fascinating-sounding new doc about Chuck Holmes, who was renowned as the “gay Hugh Hefner,” which is on the festival circuit.

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In her next film Ricki and the Flash, Meryl Streep plays the lead singer of a cover band and performs a rendition of Lady Gaga‘s “Bad Romance” that director Jonathan Demme says blows away the original version.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/vAOZAcfnP2c/darren-criss-loves-drag-meryl-outsings-gaga-and-is-kristen-stewart-dating-a-girl-20150412

RNC Released ‘Stop Hillary’ Ad Ahead Of Clinton 2016 Announcement: VIDEO

RNC Released ‘Stop Hillary’ Ad Ahead Of Clinton 2016 Announcement: VIDEO

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The Republican National Committee on Friday released a ‘Stop Hillary’ ad exclusively on Fox News ahead of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign announcement

Fox & Friends repeatedly aired the RNC attack ad on April 10. According to TVEyes’ “National Publicity Value,” which estimates the value of 30-second slots of any program, found that the attack ad received a value of approximately $157,197.12 worth of free airtime.

Watch the hosts of Fox & Friends discuss the ad and the ad itself, AFTER THE JUMP

 

 


Anthony Costello

www.towleroad.com/2015/04/rnc-releases-stop-hillary-ad-exclusively-on-fox-news-ahead-of-clintons-2016-campaign-announcement.html

Wanted: Economic Equality for the Gender Diverse Community

Wanted: Economic Equality for the Gender Diverse Community
Every minority group aspires to social equality, and the gender diverse (a.k.a. transgender) community is no different. Gender diverse persons want the same rights and opportunities as every other citizen: Not special rights or special treatment, but equality in every area of life. No more, no less.

No one deserves to be marginalized or denied their rights simply because of who they are, who they love or how they express their gender. Social equality, including both legal equality and lived equality, is a worthy goal for every person. Everyone warrants the opportunity to build a good life and to work hard to pursue their dreams. Nevertheless, what many fail to recognize is that, particularly for minority groups like the gender diverse, there can be no social equality without economic equality. For a large percentage of the gender diverse community, employment is a struggle — and without a way to earn a living, economic equality will remain little more than a far-off, seemingly unattainable goal.

That is a tragedy for society on a number of levels. Generally speaking, gender diverse workers tend to be skilled, talented people who make excellent employees when provided the opportunity to work. Employers who discriminate against the gender diverse are depriving their organizations of strong contributors and are surrendering a competitive advantage in the global war for talent. Meanwhile, gender diverse workers are being forced to experience the trauma of rejection, economic insecurity and a lack of employment opportunity — not because of an inability to contribute, but because of their gender status.

Recent studies, including “A Broken Bargain for Transgender Workers” and “Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey,” tell us that gender diverse persons report unemployment at twice the rate of the population as a whole. For gender diverse persons of color, the rate is four times the national average. More than one in four gender diverse employees have lost a job due to workplace discrimination, and more than three fourths have experienced some type of discrimination or harassment on the job. Treatment like this is certainly not conducive to long-term employment. In fact, many trans workers have reported changing jobs to avoid discrimination or the risk of discrimination at work.

When someone cannot achieve economic equality through gainful employment, the consequences are predictable. If you have no job, you have no income. If you have no income then you can’t afford food, a home, a car, a phone, health care, or other things that most of us would consider necessities to maintain a decent standard of living. When you don’t have the necessities of life, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that you might become desperate — and desperate people often do desperate things.

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, extreme levels of poverty due to unemployment lead one gender diverse person in eight to become engaged in underground economies like sex and drug work. People do what they must in order to survive. As we might imagine, mental and physical health often suffer when one has no way to make a living. Homelessness is a common experience for such persons. Due to economic inequality, gender diverse persons deal with depression, alcoholism and drug abuse at a startlingly high rate in comparison to the rest of society.

Also, and saddest of all, the “Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey” indicates that 41 percent of gender diverse persons have attempted suicide. This is nearly nine times the national average for the general population.

So, this is what happens to gender diverse people who cannot achieve economic equality because they suffer discrimination in the workplace. Their hope of social equality is essentially extinguished. The dream of a better life through employment and a living wage dies. The dignity afforded by meaningful work fades away. As the cold, hard reality of poverty closes in, the desperation factor increases exponentially until few, if any, options appear to remain. Is it any wonder that homelessness, hunger, a diminished sense of self-worth, chronic depression, addictive behaviors and suicide are at such high levels among this population?

We can do better than this — and we must. Gender diverse people are human beings of innate worth and intrinsic value. They deserve the same rights as every other citizen under the law. That includes the right to employment based on merit and the ability to do the job. While some statutes and state/federal laws have been put in place to protect workers against discrimination on the basis of gender identity, high unemployment and economic inequality remain extensive throughout the gender diverse community. There can be social equality until that untenable situation changes.

As with most complex social problems, there is no quick fix or easy answer. Remedies usually tend to be as multifaceted as the problems themselves. Solutions are often incremental rather than immediate. However, there are some efforts we can pursue to address these difficult circumstances — and as a society, we owe it to ourselves to get this done. It harms everyone when a segment of the population is placed into a dire economic situation that is not of their own making. Conversely, and as the cliché reminds us, the rising tide of employment and economic opportunity can lift all boats. Here, in no particular order, are a few suggestions for improvement.

• Educate, educate, educate. When people become more aware of the gender diverse phenomenon, they begin to realize that trans persons pose no threat to anyone. It’s more difficult to discriminate once the fear of “difference” dissipates and we realize that we’re all just people here.

• Put organizational non-discrimination policies in place that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression.

• Support and mentor gender diverse workers. Help equip them with the skills necessary to gain employment, build careers, and achieve economic equality.

• Actively recruit talent from within the gender diverse community. That talent is out there waiting to be discovered.

• Recognize the staggering scope of the economic equality crisis for the gender diverse community. Resolve to keep it in mind and encourage your organization to help by seeking out, recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining gender diverse talent.

Social equality is attainable for the gender diverse community, but only if the economic inequality problem is addressed and solved. When that happens, trans persons will be able to assume a legitimate role as significant contributors to their employers and as assets to the larger society.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/vanessa-sheridan/wanted-economic-equality-for-the-gender-diverse-community_b_7044852.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Empire's Cookie Lyon Brings Betrayal and Revenge to 'Sesame Street' on SNL: VIDEO

Empire's Cookie Lyon Brings Betrayal and Revenge to 'Sesame Street' on SNL: VIDEO

Cookie

SNL guest host Taraji P. Henson sends Sesame Street into chaos when she pays a visit as Empire ex-con and aspiring music mogul Cookie Lyon, who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Find out what happens when Cookie the monster meets Cookie Monster,
AFTER THE JUMP


Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2015/04/empires-cookie-lyon-brings-betrayal-and-revenge-to-sesame-street-on-snl-video.html